Whelen What is a true manufacturing company? Is it Whelen Engineering?

[Jman423]

Let's hear from those in the know. This will help people looking for information on which companies are trustworthy and which products are reliable.

For this discussion, we'll focus on Whelen Engineering.

 

[RS485]

( bonus: an 80H sighting at 9:45 ! )

 

[Jman423]

 

[RS485]

Interesting article about Whelen's John Olson (RIP):

Whelen Engineering's John Olson shows how U.S. manufacturing can thrive - NH Business Review

Two things make John Olson angry — questions about retirement and the passive acceptance that U.S. manufacturing is dying. Olson, the president and CEO of Whelen Engineering Company, of Charlestown, N.H., and Chester, Conn. — one of the state’s most successful, innovative manufacturing...

www.nhbr.com

 

[bluestinger90]

I think whelen and (possibly soundoff signal) are the only 2 companies that have been shown on camera to be nearly 100% vertically integrated (products are manufactured from scratch).

From time to time, I like to check out their website, click on "new products" and see if they're still sticking to their ideals.

 

[Ranger-Services.com]

Let me throw this website into the ring here, I have tried to contact them many time to see about trying to order or pricing and never any reply, they may be associated but not allowed to sell or contact anyone in the US. the listings all say whelen and other various whelen parts but lists led products with SL6 strobe power supplies... and I believe some pics are whelens'
Id love to know the deal with this comapany

Wan-Ra Engineering – Site of Wan-Ra Engineering

wan-ra.com

 

[Smoked]

Whelen buys its raw copper and manufactures everything from wire to coating on up to lenses for its bars to be made in America 78% must be made in America , Whelen sits at 97% made in America ,so I would definitely say they are manufacturing . Made from the best stuff on earth

 

[JohnMarcson]

It is pretty widely known I am a Whelen fan, and probably have a personal bias towards liking their products. However, since I am not a dealer of new products made by any company and just buy, sell and trade older equipment, I feel like I really don't have a "car in the race" as far as the current state of companies in this industry.

Whelen, IMHO, is the least scared of trying new things. Many of their products go through several (usually backwards compatible) versions. I like to see that they innovate and advance the industry without losing touch with what is actually needed. Their halogen rotators were never the backbone of their product line but had several redesigns throughout the years as feedback on the units in the field was noted. Many companies would call the first generation "good enough" when it comes to a product that isn't their main line. While strobes were always the area where Whelen excelled, they were able to see the tide turning to LED and retrofitted current products with LEDs without making "just an old bar filled with new guts" like some other companies. As the technology developed their LED offerings took over for their strobes at a rate that didn't make their existing units in the field obsolete.

Their CORE control system is by far the most versatile and easy to build I have ever used, but they still offer "dumb lightheads" and electronic flashers. Their sirens can be fully integrated into a system or you can install a standalone unit. The product line is wide but not bloated. You can build any system you need from start to finish. Considering their commitment to quality and in house and ground up manufacturing, their pricing is in line with their quality and the industry.

As far as standing behind a product I have never had a company (except Sound Off) service discontinued or older model equipment that fails once out of warranty or due to abuse/misuse. I had a siren that a crew dumped an entire thermos of coffee into. For the cost of shipping plus $65 they repaired it and sent it back good as new. This siren was years out of warranty and had been preplaced by a new (but similar) model. You can't beat that kind of commitment to standing behind a product.

In my opinion Whelen comes as close to being a full design and manufacturing company as you can get in modern times without losing volume and causing skyrocketing prices.

 

[Nolines]

It is pretty widely known I am a Whelen fan, and probably have a personal bias towards liking their products. However, since I am not a dealer of new products made by any company and just buy, sell and trade older equipment, I feel like I really don't have a "car in the race" as far as the current state of companies in this industry.

Whelen, IMHO, is the least scared of trying new things. Many of their products go through several (usually backwards compatible) versions. I like to see that they innovate and advance the industry without losing touch with what is actually needed. Their halogen rotators were never the backbone of their product line but had several redesigns throughout the years as feedback on the units in the field was noted. Many companies would call the first generation "good enough" when it comes to a product that isn't their main line. While strobes were always the area where Whelen excelled, they were able to see the tide turning to LED and retrofitted current products with LEDs without making "just an old bar filled with new guts" like some other companies. As the technology developed their LED offerings took over for their strobes at a rate that didn't make their existing units in the field obsolete.

Their CORE control system is by far the most versatile and easy to build I have ever used, but they still offer "dumb lightheads" and electronic flashers. Their sirens can be fully integrated into a system or you can install a standalone unit. The product line is wide but not bloated. You can build any system you need from start to finish. Considering their commitment to quality and in house and ground up manufacturing, their pricing is in line with their quality and the industry.

As far as standing behind a product I have never had a company (except Sound Off) service discontinued or older model equipment that fails once out of warranty or due to abuse/misuse. I had a siren that a crew dumped an entire thermos of coffee into. For the cost of shipping plus $65 they repaired it and sent it back good as new. This siren was years out of warranty and had been preplaced by a new (but similar) model. You can't beat that kind of commitment to standing behind a product.

In my opinion Whelen comes as close to being a full design and manufacturing company as you can get in modern times without losing volume and causing skyrocketing prices.

Ah but that doesn't apply to everything I sent hardware to them that's maybe a little more than 10-15 years old or the max and they're like well we don't have the parts to fix that anymore but they still want their $135 to look at it and tell you there's nothing that they can do because they junked all the rest of the stuff, but as long as their stuff is newer and still somewhere within their areas of selling yeah they'll support it but them getting the parts right that you request after giving them the correct part numbers that we were given by another Wayland person and come back with where's the rest of it that I ordered and this isn't what I ordered that kind of tends to get on you especially if you had an order disappear for 2 years oh it's being shipped it's going out eventually it yeah okay when and it never does though I'm still a whelen person more than anybody else in the world maybe